Interactive TV has held out the promise of richly interactive viewer experiences and, at the same time, enhanced capabilities for advertisers and vendors to reach targeted audiences and even individual viewers. However, despite many attempts to deliver interactive TV programs and services to TV viewers, obtaining a critical mass of public viewer interest has proved to be daunting. Some companies, such as WebTV and AOL-TV, have attempted to deliver Internet content with PC-type interactivity alongside or as an alternative to regular TV programs through cable TV or satellite TV links to advanced digital set-top boxes (STBs) operated with wireless keyboards and mouse controls. The general public has been slow to accept these types of interactive TV systems because of the high cost of purchasing the STB units and ongoing costs for online service. Moreover, Internet-based content tends to require active viewer navigation and direction, which is fundamentally different from the passive entertainment experience most viewers seem to prefer with regular TV programs. Other companies, such as Liberate and OpenTV, have attempted to offer a platform for delivering various interactive services on the TV, such as email, Internet surfing, local directories, online purchasing, electronic TV program guides, etc., on the peripheries of regular TV programming. Viewer response to the availability of such TV-based interactive services has been growing, but has been tempered by the availability of many other delivery channels for online services, coupled with the lack of compelling experiences that can be delivered by interactive TV.
The lack of compelling interactive TV programming or advertising appears to be the result of two thorny problems. One is the inertia of the TV programming and advertising production companies to produce TV content in the traditional way, i.e., as stories, ads, and other types of narrative scripts filmed with live actors which are intended to be viewed passively as entertainment. These industries will not underwrite the huge costs of producing and promoting new types of interactive content unless there is a clear demand for them by the viewing public. The other problem is the mindset of the TV hardware, middleware, and software programming industries that new types of interactive TV content must be delivered with new types of advanced digital platforms, user input devices and interfaces, Internet-based or PC-based content, and/or broadband connectivity. Viewers have resisted such attempts to foist new equipment, programming, or connectivity costs on them through their familiar and largely cost-free TV appliance in the absence of any critical mass of truly compelling interactive TV content. These problems have resulted in a deadlock that has prevented the advancement of the promise of interactive TV.
Finding an inexpensive way for existing production companies to produce compelling interactive TV content and for TV multi-service operators (MSOs) to deliver it to TV viewers without imposing large new costs on them is thus the key to the advancement of interactive TV. Interactive TV content can be produced inexpensively by existing TV production companies without radically changing their existing production methods by taking advantage of the vast base of existing non-interactive programs produced by such companies and converting them to interactive media programs.
In our U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,845 issued on Jan. 13, 1998, we disclosed a method for readily converting existing media content to interactive media content by defining “hot spots” on a TV display of content and triggering an interactive response (new video sequence, pop-up message, graphic effects, etc.) when a viewer “clicks” on the “hot spots”, which is incorporated herein by reference.
In our U.S. Pat. No. 6,496,981 issued on Dec. 17, 2002, we further disclosed a method of detecting and processing a viewer's pressing of directional arrow buttons on a standard remote control to toggle to “haloed” objects on a TV display to “click” on “hot spots” in an interactive TV program, which is incorporated herein by reference.
In our U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/815,020 filed on Mar. 21, 2001, we disclosed additional methods for providing a visual interface to a viewer to “click” on “hot spots” in an interactive TV program using a standard remote control with a conventional TV set-top box, which is incorporated herein by reference.
In the present U.S. Patent Application, the invention is directed to a system for converting TV content to an interactive TV game program which can be operated using a standard remote control and TV set-top box. The present invention is intended to solve the following problems with interactive TV systems and content.
Television networks rely heavily on revenues from commercials broadcast to a wide audience, a large portion of which has no interest in buying the advertised goods or services. Accordingly, many viewers avoid commercials when they air (“ad-zapping”) by switching to another channel, leaving the room, muting their television or recording programs for later viewing and then “fast-forwarding” through the commercials.
Ad-zapping is not new; however, a recently developed technology featured in some personal video recorders (“PVR”) identifies and skips commercials altogether, allowing viewers to watch uninterrupted, commercial-free programming. As a result, advertisers have become increasingly concerned their message will not reach viewers and television networks fear their traditional revenue model will be undermined.
To counter ad-zapping, advertisers spend huge sums to produce commercials they hope viewers will find entertaining enough to watch and air them repeatedly to increase their likelihood of being seen. Some advertisers also pay to have their products displayed within the programming itself as product placements. The resulting bombardment of annoying, irrelevant commercial messages only increases viewers' incentive to ad-zap.
New interactive TV technologies have been developed counter ad-zapping, some of which target and deliver commercials only to viewers most likely to have an interest in the advertised products. Others enable viewers to interact with text overlaid on commercials and request promotional materials, and still others permit viewers to play simple games which feature advertisers' logos or products but are unrelated to TV content or ads.
None of the above solutions offers viewers a compelling reason to watch the targeted or interactive commercials or to play games on their TV instead of on their computer or game console. The invention described in this patent application does both by linking simple iTV games to existing TV programs and commercials. It also provides additional advertising opportunities by using frequently visited EPGs to launch the games and company logos, products or mascots to function as cursors.